Tag: promotion

By now you probably know that Friday is Yoan Moncada Day. There is always some buzz in Fantasy circles when rosters expand on Sept. 1, but having the minors’ top prospect come up for the final stretch just adds to the level of excitement. More often than not, September callups don’t justify the hype, so […]

We originally posted this in June of this year, but in honor of Moncada being called up on Friday here it is again.

If you are a Red Sox fan or an avid fantasy baseball player who tracks prospects then you are likely familiar with Yoan Moncada. Moncada is a Cuban born 2nd baseman currently playing AA Portland for the Red Sox. As the number one prospect in Boston’s organization there is a lot of optimism about what Moncada will do for the team’s future. In Single-A this year Moncada played 61 games and had a .307/.427/.496 slash line with 36 stolen bases in 44 attempts. Now at Double-A he has played in seven games and has a .281/.281/.406 slash line with 1 stolen base in 1 attempt.

Nearly every analyst feels the future is bright for this 21 year old middle infielder, but when will his future with the big league club happen? I believe it should happen next year.

With David Ortiz retiring at the end of the 2016 season Boston will have an opening at the DH spot that they haven’t had in many years. In addition they have a first baseman who would be better as a DH in Manny Ramirez. My suggestion is this, after 2016 move Ramirez to DH. That opens up first base for Travis Shaw who currently plays third. With third open you could bring up Moncada and let him play there as scouts have said he can play second or third.

Not only have you improved your defense by getting Ramirez off the field, but three fourths of the Red Sox infield would be 26 or younger.

It is unlikely that Moncada starts 2017 with the big league club, but if the Red Sox are reading this they really should give it some thought.

Randal Grichuk came in to the 2016 season with a lot of hype coming off of a break out season in 2015, but we soon found out that past performance doesn’t always lead to future success. Grichuk started the season with a .206 batting average and eight home runs in 62 games, with a horrible .276 OBP and .392 slugging percentage. This lead to him being demoted to Triple-A to try and find his swing. After being recalled on July 5th he lasted another 22 games before his second demotion of the season. This wasn’t the last we would see of him in St. Louis, but by this point many fantasy owners had already give up on a repeat of 2015 and some may have considered him a bust.

By Minda Haas Kuhlmann on Flickr (Original version) UCinternational (Crop) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsNine games later Grichuk was recalled again on August 11th. Since then he has been a man on fire. His triple slash line since the promotion is .341/.356/.886. He has five home runs, seven doubles and a triple. To go along with those numbers, he has 11 RBI and 7 runs. He has been hitting the ball well and playing daily for the Cardinals and has begun to give fantasy owners new hope. Though he still doesn’t walk enough, one walk in 12 games, and strikes out way too much, 15 K’s in 12 games, he is putting the bat to the ball and raised his contact rate to 70%. Currently Mike Matheny has been batting him in the 7th or 8th spot in the Cardinals lineup, but other than Matt Carpenter there is no one in St. Louis’s batting order that would stop Matheny from moving Grichuk to the top third giving him even more fantasy value.

Grichuk is owned in less than 50% of all CBSSports.com leagues and should be owned moving forward in at least 70% of leagues. Don’t forget he came in to 2016 owned in 89% of leagues and has already moved up from his lowest ownership percentage of 30% quite a bit. If he is on your waiver wire, make sure you pounce while you still can.

Earlier this week I posted the blog below on Keon Broxton, but I had to post it again because many of you have not received the memo. This kid is a speedster and if you are in a roto league he needs to be added. In the past seven games he has stolen six bases (he actually only played in six of those seven games). He has had two games in the past seven where he stole two bases in the same game. Oh and by the way he has only been caught stealing one time in 18 attempts.

Not only is Broxton full of speed, but the Brewers have shown they will run whenever they can. If you don’t believe me just look at Jonathan Villar and the amazing season he is having on the base paths. In CBSSports.com leagues Broxton is widely available with a 19% ownership rate and that needs to jump closer to 40%. Any team that is suffering for steals should snatch this guy up before your competition does.

For more on Broxton read the blog post below.

If you are still in the running in your fantasy baseball league, then you are likely looking for any player that can help get you over the finish line. Maybe you just lost Giancarlo Stanton, like me, for the season and need to find an outfielder to replace him. Of course there is no replacing Stanton, but don’t sleep on picking up Keon Broxton.

Broxton was traded to Milwaukee in the offseason by Pittsburgh and was a sleeper steals source coming in to 2016, but he struggled early in the season and ended up going down to Triple-A. Recently he found his way back to the big league club and is making the most of this opportunity. In the past 30 games Broxton is has a .367/.475/.633 slash line with seven stolen bases and two home runs. He jumps around the batting order even hitting lead-off at times. His strikeout rate has to improve to keep up what his current level of performance, but even if it only comes down a little his elite walk rate of 15.6% makes him a great on-base guy with a ton of speed.

Critics will warn you that Domingo Santana is on his way back from injury and that may cut in to playing time for Broxton, but if he continues to have a 1.108 OPS like he has over the past 30 games there is no way the Brewers can keep him out of the lineup.